On the same day officials at Rikers Island confirmed that another inmate has died in custody, the ninth death at the jail in 2021, the Department of Corrections commissioner placed some of the blame on the worsening conditions in jail on uniformed staff not coming into their shifts.
Joint reporting by WNYC/Gothamist and The City point to the wave of self-harm as part of a “climate of despair” felt by inmates, jail officials, social workers and others who cite the rising population within city jails as a root cause to the problem. This analysis was echoed by a recent report from a court-appointed federal monitor tasked with overseeing the jail system.
“When staff don’t show up to work, every aspect of our operation suffers,” DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi, who was appointed to the position by the mayor in May, said at an on-site press conference. “So do the employees who pick up the slack and the people in custody. Safety suffers.”
While uniformed staff at the DOC are entitled to unlimited sick leave, there was a daily average of 1,416 uniformed personnel who called out sick in August, according to DOC statistics. That compares to the daily average of 689 and 555 who called out over the same period in 2020 and 2019, respectively. Official estimates show that 8,400 uniformed staff are currently employed at Rikers.
Those numbers give Schiraldi reason to believe that some of the staff are actually feigning illness.
“Those who have just completed single shifts with no sign of illness suddenly say they're sick,” he said. “We’re seeing this kind of faking-out illness over and over and over again, far too many times.”
But the Correction Officers Benevolent Association (COBA), a union which represents guards at Rikers, believes that unless attacks against officers are addressed and long hours are cut the crisis will only continue.
“Commissioner Schiraldi is shamefully demonizing our officers,” COBA president Benny Boscio Jr. said in a statement to WNYC/Gothamist. “The reality is that triple shifts are happening because in just one year, the inmate population has nearly doubled.”
The recent federal monitor report estimated an average daily population of 4,855 incarcerated by the city, while a 2021 DOC fact sheet says 6,000 are now currently held in those same facilities.
Still, the DOC has announced a slew of reforms. These include adjusted schedules for staff, free rides to work and back for those working a triple-shift, getting doctor approval before sick leave, and free meals to staff working a double-shift or more.
Most notably, the DOC said they will use a newly established Correction Officer Academy to begin onboarding approximately 600 correction officers in October. To recruit new officers, the DOC has enlisted a “telemarketing” firm to actively pursue employees.
“We’re pushing, there is a sense of urgency here,” Schiraldi said. “I think if you talked to any of the members of our executive team, or even our detractors, they would say a lot more has been done to move the ball along.”
